weight loss

There are hundreds of thousands of options for losing weight in the market. The magazines, social media sites, newspapers, and other infomercials are filled with advertisements for the most adequate and fastest way to lose weight. Apart from all such things, we all try experimenting a lot with the restricted diets or fasting for a shorter span of time in order to lose those extra kilos.

A number of people perform fasting in order to detoxify the body by flushing out the toxins and to lose weight. In the past few decades, fasting has gained huge recognition in the weight loss market. Fasting consists of a lot of variations such as once-a-month fasting, time-restricted fasting or intermittent fasting.

It becomes confusing and difficult as which strategy would work best as a healthy weight loss solution. But the answer is highly complicated.

Fasting is practiced since ages. Earlier when the only means of survival was hunting, people used to live without food for days till the time they hunt and gather their next meal. Now in the present era, certain religions started the ritual of fasting as a tradition for spiritual cleansing. It then started gaining huge recognition.

Fasting can be understood as the act of refraining oneself from the consumption of food or water or limiting the intake of food for a longer period of time. Many times it also includes not consuming solid foods but the consumption of fruits and juices is allowed. It might also include restricting the overall intake of food in a duration of some specific hours.

In the recent studies, fasting is considered as a significant aspect of health arena and weight loss which help the individuals in managing their total intake of food, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and diminishing the overall body fat.

A number of individuals do fasting as it is difficult for them to stick to a strict and continuous calorie restriction diet plan. It is highly challenging for them to monitor the intake of calories regularly and thus people do a fast instead to decrease the overall consumption of calories in total. Fasting helps in improving the physical condition of the individuals, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, dropping down the higher levels of protein, decreasing the abdominal fat and diminishing the blood glucose levels.

You can profoundly decrease your weight through fasting at the initial level, but at the same time fasting may be risky for your health as the weight reduced by fasting is majorly the ‘water weight’ which is not a part of ‘body fat’. Once you will starting following your routine life and will get back to the normal eating patterns then the weight you have lost will come back with the double speed with few more kilos being added on it. Because of fasting, the metabolism becomes slower and it is easy to gain weight at that time. Thus, it is considered one of the most negative aspects of non-continuous fasting.

There are several side effects of fasting such as weakness, dizziness, low blood sugar levels, fatigue, muscle aches, and headaches. Individuals do fasting for a long period of time without consulting a health expert or nutritionist. Hence, they may also get prone to health ailments like irregular heartbeat, anemia, kidney and liver problems and a weakened immune system. It might also result in a deficiency of minerals and vitamin in body, diarrhea and muscle breakdown.

From an overall perspective, it sounds practical and logical that fasting helps in detoxifying your body by cleansing the harmful substances which can enhance the risk of obesity and other health ailments. But still, there has not been found any adequate or scientific evidence which can prove that you need to do fasting in order to flush out the toxic substances from the body.

The bottom line is that fasting may be a weight loss technique at initial level but it may act potentially dangerous for you as well. Therefore, it is not an effective way to lose weight, rather you can opt for a routine workout combined with a healthy eating plan as it does not have any negative impact on your body as well as help you in losing the weight.

Human behavior is complex. We are driven by various biological, genetic, behavioral, social, cultural, and environmental influences affecting our day-to-day lives. Obesity was not even considered a problem in the last century, but it has emerged as one of the biggest health problems in the world today.

We are exposed to the risk of developing diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, dementia and various others. While many factors may influence weight gain, the basic ones include the following:

Factors that cause obesity

We have become more dependable on machines and very less active otherwise. We are leading a hectic and stressful lifestyle.

People have lost control over their eating behavior. The food we love so much (the junk) are just a few refined ingredients mixed with highly engineered chemicals that taste so good that we cannot avoid its temptations.

Other factors include unhealthy life choices like not consuming enough fruit, vegetables and unrefined carbohydrates, drinking too much alcohol, eating larger portions than required, lack of exercise and physical activity, less sleep, depression, consumption of drugs such as contraceptives, steroid hormones, diabetes, antidepressants and blood pressure pills.

Cure for obesity

Weight loss is influenced by 80% of your eating habits and 20% working out. Thus, feeding on the wrong food habits can make you obese. Limit your energy intake from sweetened beverages, saturated fat or salt and sugar content processed food. Couple it up with increased physical activity and you are good to go.

The golden rule is to never skip on breakfast as it is the most important meal of the day. It provides a steady stream of energy and also prevents unhealthy snacking.

Also, stop nibbling between meals. Train yourself to have less food. However, you can always eat 4-5 mini meals spaced 2-3 hours apart during the day to increase your metabolism.

There is no better option to prevent obesity than physical exercise. Start with brisk walking in the morning. Other activities include yoga Classes, gym and aerobics. Age also plays an important role in weight loss.

Chances of younger people getting into the shape with minimal efforts are higher compared to those on the other side of thirties and looking for weight loss. Hence, special attention needs to be given to their eating habits.

Yogic management for obesity

Heard of yogic management? It is a concept based on having a controlled and balanced diet besides maintaining other factors like breathing techniques, relaxation and meditation.

We should eat only the adequate amount of food our body needs – no more, no less. It needs to be accompanied by regular exercises, intermittent water fasts, yoga asanas and pranayama. Yogic management guarantees weight loss.

According to yogic text Hatha Yoga, pranayama can help burn excess fat in the bodyweight. The most effective pranayama practices for weight reduction include

a) Kapalabhati and b) Anulom Vilom Pranayama.

Kapalabhati or the skull cleansing breath involves deep inhalation and exhalation. One is required to sit in a comfortable posture with the spine positioned erect. The stomach is drawn in with every forceful exhalation and air is filled again with normal inhalation. This asana helps to reduce fat around the belly.

Anulom Vilom Pranayama reduces weight too. This is done in Padmasana with eyes closed. The right nostril is closed with the right thumb and the air is filled in with the left nostril. Then the right thumb is released and the air is exhaled from it. The same is repeated for the left nostril.

Obesity is no less than an epidemic. It needs to be discussed repeatedly so people are aware and adopt a healthy lifestyle. It’s time you take the plunge too!